Balbela Arzaguet (2018)

I was my mother's sixth pregnancy. Preceded by 5 spontaneous abortions and succeeded by one more. A month before my birth, my grandfather, my grandmother, my aunt and my cousin came by surprise to celebrate my mother's birthday.

Avoiding a truck, the car rolled over. My grandmother and my aunt were thrown out of the car. They both died. My grandfather lost his wife and his daughter. My mother, seven months pregnant, lost her mother and sister.

They did not expect us to survive, neither mine grandad nor me. Not to the accident, but to the mourning. Him, they thought would die of sadness; me, they thought would make company to my predecessors. They were wrong. He lived to be my grandfather for 21 years, and at 101 years old, die one day after my birthday.

This work is not about loss, but about the meanings embedded in the scenarios of a relationship that almost-was-not. It is a eulogy you to every exchange that was so close to not happening, but it did. It is a record of the landscapes I could signify, the nation I learned to love, and the memories I could build, not only because I survived, but because we survived. Because we shared an existence. Together.

Balbela Arzaguet (2018)

Capa dura

Being an autobiographical project of a fundamentally narrative nature, Balbela Arzaguet -found in the book since the very beginning -  a very powerful support.

Here, the artist explored the medium for the first time, combining the project images with short poetic texts that guide the viewer through the story.

The dummy - yet unpublished - was completed in 2018 for the occasion of the Porto Alegre Photography Festival (FestFoto POA), and has since been printed on demand as a means of presenting the project and submitting the book to festivals and awards.

Balbela Arzaguet (16/02/2019)

CdF Montevideo

Fotogaleria Prado, Montevideo - Uruguay

16/02/2019 a 08/04/2019

individual

In 2018, a sequence developed as part of the Balbela Arzaguet project was selected by the Centro de Fotografía de Montevideo (Montevideo Photography Center) for an individual exhibition at the Prado Photo Gallery.

Prior to the inauguration of the exhibition, the author spoke at the CdF Museum, in which he briefly addressed his career as a photographer, the artistic process involved in the development of the project and other projects under development.

The outdoor gallery is located in the Prado Park (Senda Clara Silva, 11700 Montevideo, Uruguay) and is open 24 hours a day, every day of the week. The exhibition is open until April 8.